Eden
by North13
Summary: The kids of Mathew's world all live the beginning of their lives on the internet, free of any problems from the outside world. The only catch is that any friends must be forgotten as soon as they leave. But, Mathew doesn't want to leave his new friend, Lars, because as soon as they say goodbye, it's for forever. Inspired by the English dub of the song "Eden" by Key.
1. Chapter 1

It was the year 3426. His name was Mathew Williams. He may not know much about the world around him but, he knew that much at least. He also knew that he lived in the land that used to have been called Canada. Or at least his body did. His mind not so much but we'll get to that in good time.

Anyway, he knew that he lived in Canada because according to the videos of historians and news stories, that he had diligently listened to whenever he could find them, that's where he was. But, he could be wrong. On the other hand, hundreds of news reels and other information sources cannot all be wrong. Wasn't there a saying that he had found somewhere? That there is a grain of truth to every story? Then somewhere in all of the stuff he had found there has to be at least a grain of truth hidden in there somewhere. And if all of them said the same thing, that Canada was the land in this such and such location, then that must mean that he was in Canada.

This is what he knew beyond that though. He knew that a lot had changed in the past millennium. For one thing, there were no more countries. Nothing, they were now no more. People had come to see that identifying everyone else as a different kind of person only bred distrust between those different groups of people that were deemed the same. The people of that time were trying to move past that kind of mistrust. But, also, people had come to find that they weren't all that different after everything was said and done. People began to just call themselves human. People had stopped identifying themselves with their old countries. There were no differences between people anymore.

All wars stopped as wars between different countries were now seen to be the same thing as a civil war. There was no point for any violence to occur anymore. So, the violence stopped. The identifying of oneself by a country of origin stopped. And so, in the end the countries themselves just seemed to stop. The countries were now as gone as the empires that had come before them.

If Mathew wasn't so inquisitive, so curious about everything that he came across; he might never have understood exactly everything that had happened to his world since that particular time in his world's history. He might have never known about the countries. He might not have understood what was happening to him right then and there.

Because of his nature he knew he was now in a fictional utopia type digital world called "Eden". He knew that he had been put there when he was five years old. Mathew also knew that he had not been put into Eden physically. It was true he had been sent there, but that was just his mind, his body had not gone with him. As far as he knew it was at the place where his "home" was, like everyone else whose mind was uploaded like he was.

About a week ago he had found a website that explained what Eden was. According to the site, it is a virtual world made from the internet that all of the children of Earth now go to. Eden was meant to teach kids about the world outside and anything that the person wanted to learn about. Anything that had ever been put onto the internet was open to them to go onto. They could literally do anything that they wanted to while hooked onto there.

But, most important, Eden was meant to keep all of the children under control while their parents found about the world around them. Eden was meant to keep their children free from the distraction that a child always proves to be.

Publically, Eden was advertised as being the ideal way of making children become independent. They had to become independent; they had no one to besides the other children that were hooked up like they were to try to communicate with.

Eden was built with every adult knowing that anyone their children met online there was little to no chance of them seeing after they turned eighteen. At that time, when they were of legal age to start working, they were taken off of the net to be trained and set to work on their pre-determined job. Any contact after they were eighteen with any friends they had made was strictly discouraged.

Messages like that was the children's only real contact with the outside world. It was only ever little messages that would show up in their virtual bodies pockets telling them about certain things.

"Today is your birthday, happy birthday, Mathew."

"Look up what toothpaste and tooth brushes are and how to use them. After you leave you will need to know how to use them because you won't have any technology to do it for you at that time."

"Don't become too close to anyone; you cannot meet up with them after you are logged off."

"Two more years to go Mathew, keep hanging in there. You should start looking up all the different known plants that have been found so far. Your job after disconnection will be to find any unknown plants that are still left to be found."

There almost seemed to be no point to even trying to interact with any of the other teenagers he saw. He would be gone in two years anyway.

But, just maybe that was the reason why he should risk the sure heartbreak any relationship, no matter how trivial, on here would cause. This was the only time he would be free in his life to decide exactly what he wanted to do for himself.

Mathew wanted to know what friendship would feel like before he lost his chance forever. He wanted to have at least one friend before he logged off and spent the rest of his life hiking around the world without ever encountering any other people. Mathew wanted to know what it was like to know a fellow human being as much as he would soon have to know all of the plants in the world outside.

That day, for the first time since he had found it, Mathew walked into Eden's main common room where people would occasionally gather. Today he was determined to find someone to talk to. Mathew scanned the room, looking at everyone, trying to see if there was anyone that would be willing to strike up a nice conversation with him.

The person Mathew chose, after looking throughout the room, had brown gelled up hair, and a scar on the top part of his forehead that begged the obvious question, 'how did he manage to get that?' The person was wearing a blue and white stripped scarf wrapped around his neck. The boy looked to be about his age, which was why Mathew had chosen him, and was tall, much taller than Mathew was. But, that was okay, Mathew was already interested in him, the person's height did not bother Mathew at all.

He started to walk toward the stranger noting as he got closer how his face was actually very handsome. The scar on his forehead took nothing away from how attractive he was. The scar actually made him look a bit roguish and interesting to behold.

Mathew swallowed hard as he came to stand before the man, looking up at him as the stranger gave an indifferent expression back. His eyes seemed to be glaring at Mathew though despite his blank expression. 'That's a little nerve racking.' Mathew thought to himself before speaking.

"Um, hello, my name is Mathew Williams. Could I please know what your name is?"

Mathew could only hope that, despite his misgivings, this would become the best two years of his life.


	2. Chapter 2

"Lars. My name is Lars."

Lars? That was it; his first name? That's unusual, but, alright. It was still a pretty cool name.

"Well, um, do you-um, do you mind if I talk to you?"

"Well, if you haven't already noticed then I'll just say this, you already are."

"Oh, right."

Mathew looked down, his stupid social awkwardness was making him extremely embarrassed already with all of his obvious, stupid little social blunders. Why hadn't he practiced talking at least a little bit more before now?

"It's alright."

Great, now Lars seemed to be taking pity on him and his pathetic social skills. Fantastic. He really was completely hopeless at making any actual friends. Well, it wasn't like he had ever had any before.

Lars tilted his head slightly to the side as he asked his own question of Mathew. "What is it that you wanted to talk about? You never actually said what it was."

Lars looked at Mathew expectantly, his interest in the shy person standing before him was now thoroughly piqued.

"I, uh, I was wondering…um, this is kind of a weird question but, how do you make friends? Like, how do you make friends-friends, as in people that you can fully trust? Do you know how?"

'Well that was surprising, I was actually able to say it without stuttering or something. One small verbal conversation in real life. One giant mental leap for Mathew.'

Lars eyes flashed wide open as his eyebrows rose over his forehead; his face even lost some of its straight-faced look and took on a more surprised one. He didn't seem to know what to do.

"You just talk, like this; what we're doing right now. I really don't know how to explain it in any other way than that."

Mathew frowned. "But, how do you get someone interested in you? Like, what exactly are you supposed to talk about? Is there anything specific you're supposed to say?"

Lars shrugged. "I don't know, you can probably say anything really. Whatever first comes to your mind you can say. Whatever you really feel like talking about. You talk about what you like, and then try to find out about what the other person likes. After that, you try to figure out what you both like so that you can keep talking about it. You just kind of make friends in that way, I guess."

Lars paused. Then flashed a sly grin Mathew's way.

"Why? Do you want to be my friend? Do you want to know what I like? I'll be nice on you-here, I'll even give you your first real hint about me. The one thing I like the best is cute guys, and I have to say, you're a pretty cute guy, if I do say so myself. The most important question to me though is if you would like to be more than friends, hmm? I think I'd like that too. So, there, now you know two things I like, we're that much closer to becoming friends."

Mathew's cheeks flushed a bright pink colour, delicate, it was like his skin was trying to turn itself into the colour of fresh flower petals. They had gone as pink as a prairie rose, much more beautiful and alive looking than any so-called romantic red rose could ever be.

Lars continued to talk.

"That's what you do. When you try to make a friend you try to find out what all of their interests are. Right now, my interest is you, just you. There's nothing else better to do really, and you're cute. So, if you want my attention, you really just need to talk about yourself, or whatever you damn well feel like talking about, I guess. Mentioning your number would be pretty darn nice as a starter. Your favorite colour, where your virtual house is-like where you live. What your favorite food is would be good to know about. But, really, just talk about whatever you feel like. Don't let anything stop you from saying anything to me. Anything you say is pretty good with me."

Mathew took a small step back to brace himself, his thin arms coming up across his chest to connect with each other, his hands resting on the opposite arm, a security blanket across his chest meant to somehow protect him. From what, that Mathew wasn't quite too sure about. Mathew looked to the side, his eyes diligently focused on the ground. He was almost regretting talking to this person at all, advances like this were too foreign to him. They had never happened before. And so, he wasn't paying as much attention as he should. He was still trying to shield himself while trying to let someone in. It was a paradox that Mathew would have to drop, either one side or the other would have to fall at some point for this to work, or he would have to stop trying to make friends.

"Um, my-my favorite food is pancakes…with maple syrup, of course. And-wait, what have you been saying this whole time?"

Mathew's eyes widened in that way that little kids will look when they have been told they were going to the circus, his eyes showed that feeling. They showed the he was incredulous at the realization he had just made about what was said, and surprised that they were said in the first place to him as he looked up startled from his inspection of the ground and turned his attention instead towards Lars's amused face.

"Wait a minute here, do you actually like me? Like, **like**-like me? Like, as in, the romantic really serious kind of way? Is that what you mean by you like me?" Mathew's strange purple eyes were searching Lars face as he asked his questions, diligently looking for any little sign that would let him know that Lars was lying through his teeth and was merely lying to him to amuse himself. Or just to joke around and mess with him. In a way, he kind of hoped he wasn't. Not that he liked him or anything of course. He just didn't like being lied to, or messed around with. He just didn't get jokes like that. So, he didn't like them.

Lars just smiled, nothing he was doing was hinting at a lie of any kind. Nothing at all. But, if he was telling the truth then Mathew didn't know what to do. He had no idea at all what to do unlike the person in front of him. Him, he was serious and knew what he was doing.

"Well, yeah. You have a pretty nice body. It's good. You're not fat at all, you're not too tall so that it would be awkward standing next to you, and you're skinny. And I like seeing you struggle to say the smallest of things. Your face is nice too. You're pretty cute. So, why not like you? Are you interested in dating? A better question is this: would you like to date me, in particular?"

"Wait a minute, what? We literally only just met each other! You don't even know anything at all about my personality."

"Yeah but, I can always learn about that as we become better friends. Like I said before, friends are supposed to learn about each other. That's how you become friends. For now though, I would kind of like to state my claim to you right away, so that there are no big messes later on. Like, for instance, before I've been friend zoned or anything stupid like that. What if some other guy saw you and asked before I thought that it would be alright for myself to ask you? What if a girl sees you? To be fair though, you look more like a girl than any of the females I've seen roaming around here. You're a lot cuter than they all are. It's not as likely, but one could still go after you. Girls probably like a cute face as much as any guy does. Either sex could go after you. There's too much chance in that. Too much could easily be decided by fate or something else like that. So no, it's best to ask right away, when I've already pretty much decided that you're cute and I would like to date you. I just want to let you know what I'm thinking about right away."

"Um," Mathew's eyes had returned to looking at the ground. "I don't really know. I've just met you, I don't know you, and I've never even been in a relationship before."

Mathew's face tipped up to look at Lars from underneath his wavy blond locks.

"I wouldn't know what to do. So, not yet." Mathew was uncertain again. Which was the real problem with never talking to other people. Because of that he was always unsure of himself and of the effect that his words may have on others. Because of that problems like this surfaced; which was what he needed to get past. He gained a little bit of confidence in himself just by coming to that realization. He needed to speak his mind more and say what he wanted to so that he could learn what he should say.

"Is that alright with you? I don't want to be your boyfriend quite yet. But, I do want to be your friend. And maybe later we can, um, progress our relationship, if we do become close enough friends, to being in a romantic relationship. And well, um yeah, you are pretty hot. So, it's not like I'm turning you down because I don't think that you're handsome or I don't like your face or anything! Just, not yet, this is too quick for me. Okay?"

Lars grinned again. It seemed to be his signature look as far as Mathew could tell.

"You're getting too flustered about this. It's not that big of a deal. But, yes, I do want to be your friend. I just want you to keep my offer in mind, okay?"

Mathew nodded quickly. "Um, yeah, I will, of course I will. I can do that much at least."

"Good," Lars reached out a hand to tousle Mathew's hair a little bit.

'His hair is really soft.' Lars retracted his hand quickly and started heading off to one of the doorways that were stationed in every room. they just needed to walk through them and think of a place to go there in an instant.

"So, where do you want to go to Mathew? We can hang out anywhere in the known world after all. Everything ever made is available to us in this made up world. Let's take advantage of that."

* * *

**So,** **my ****first author's note. **

**Please tell me if I'm doing anything wrong with my writing or the story itself. **

**Also, do any of you have those certain people in your life that always try to flirt with you? Like, the first thing they ever say and do is not very appropriate? That's basically my idea for this story. Because I'm not very funny myself, I'm hoping you'll have more fun reading this story with these kinds of characters. Plus, because I interact with them a lot, I know what they will likely do. So, it's easier for me to think of what they'll say to each other.**

**I hope everyone has a great school year. Have fun, always all the time. **


End file.
